Graduation from Old School

A long time TOJ friend emailed me that some of his body parts are acting up with strange pains here and there.

He gave me a rundown on his activities, which still included basketball, skiing, and line dancing. What caught my attention was his very short list of training exercises he does routinely that he probably learned back in high school, including a few upper body lifts and good old-fashioned ab crunches.

He's going to get some opinions from a physical therapist, which is a good idea. He's in his 60's wants to keep doing what he enjoys, so it makes sense to figure out what he needs to do next.

Hearing what he's doing (and not), this TOJ surmised there could be all kinds of causes for the pain, like aging combined with quick movements on hard surfaces causing compression on nerves. But some of his maladies likely have a simpler explanation.

What his list of exercises revealed was that he's doing a minimal number of exercises that  aren't well matched to what his activities are. Missing in action were exercises focused on the core. In the old days the core was synonymous with ab crunches. However, these are of limited benefit because they are isolated to only the rectus abdominus muscle and there are better, safer exercises even just for it.

Training your core is more important than ever as you age because it enables good posture, provides lumbar stability, and, for people doing athletics, is the link for dynamic movements in the muscles of the lower and upper body.

Think of your core as a ring of strength from your lower rib cage down to pelvis. The rectus abdominus muscle is just a bit player in what makes the core function. The real core is composed of several layers of muscles, in particular the transverse abdominus, multifidi, quadratus laborum, internal oblique, diaphragm, and muscles in the pelvic floor.

In many blogs about aging I rant about how important it is to activate Type II fast twitch muscle fibers by doing some exercises that require speed and power. Not today. The core is an exception.

The core is mainly composed of Type I slow twitch fibers that need to be exercised as well to develop their endurance. The best exercises to do this are isometric exercises such as the Plank, Side Plank, and Bird Dog. The video below nicely demonstrates how to do the Bird Dog.

Core exercises should be performed a few times a week. It's surprising how many physical problems, starting with low back pain, disappear when your core is strong. As if by miracle, your performance vastly improves, whether in a sport or activity of daily living.

Many of us Boomers learned old school exercises like the ab crunch. Now it's time to graduate to newer, more effective ones based on current exercise science.

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ADL: The Killer Workout

In past blogs, we've explored exercise regimens that enlist fast twitch fibers, deplete glycogen, tear down the build muscles, maximize heart rates, etc. -- hard core exercise stuff with lots of sweat and some science.

This blog is different because it's more mundane, though just as important as any about the cutting edge, ultra, exercise theories. In fact, given some of the recent findings by physiologists, maybe it's more important, especially if your job keeps you on your butt in front of a computer much of the day or you like to watch hours of TV or spend hours reading books like the bestseller 50 Shades of Grey.

I made an unexpected discovery over the past three weeks as my wife and I moved from Colorado to Oregon. First there was the packing, then then the move, then the unloading. Then, once in the house we rented, there was fix up, cleaning, and taming (I can't think of a better word) the yard, once no doubt a thing of beauty, but that had been neglected for years.

During those weeks I formally "worked out" only a couple of times, that is, put on exercise shorts, wick away t-shirts, Five Fingers or Montrails, and counted reps or minutes. Rarely was I out of breath or my muscles burning. But by the time bedtime rolled around, I was exhausted. My body was shot  from non-stop ADL.

ADL is a physical therapist/sports physiologist/orthopaedist catchall phrase for the Activities of Daily Living, the basic physical activities we typically do every day - push, pull, lift, lunge and squat. Very important functional movements.We don't even think about them much, though they are really the basis for every exercise routine we ever do.

I was really surprised after finding the bathroom scales in a moving box and standing on them. During the move, I had lost 5 pounds, more than I did in my typical workweek when I did my usual exercise - ketttlebells, running, weight lifting, calisthenics, HIT, Navy Seal routines, etc. In the average week, this TOJ about 260 - 300 minutes of moderate to hard exercise.

And during that time of moving and moving in, I ate every chance I got and drank lots of water (yeah, beer, too). What had changed?

I grabbed my copy of Jay Hoffman's Norms for Fitness, Performance and Health and looked up the energy expenditure/minute of various physical activities, from competitive sports to yard work. The charts are based on body weight. I guessed that on average in my workouts I burn somewhere  between 12 - 15 calories/minute. During the move and taming the yard, I burned between 6 - 8 calories/min., which doesn't sound like much. So why the weight loss?

Because I was burning 6 calories per minute for a minimum of 6 hours per day, which equates to 1,500 calories per day. On a hard workout day I might burn 900. That's a 600 calorie/day difference of ADL over exercise. During that period, I burned about 4,200 more calories each week. A pound of fat (sure, throw in a little water loss) is about 3,500 calories. The math shows I should have lost about 4 pounds, which is just what happened.

My point is not to stop doing the usual hard "exercise" because it's good for our hearts, muscles, bones, metabolism and mental health. I love it.

However, ADL is exercise, too. Everyday physical labor counts. It's good for us too, more than we know.

More about this in the next couple of days...